The present invention relates to dispensers and, more particularly, to fuel dispensers that use radio frequency identification technology to automatically identify the presence of an on-board vapor recovery system in a receptacle (e.g. a vehicle) with little or no customer interaction.
Many fuels, by their very nature, are hazardous materials that require extreme care in handling and dispensing. For example, when dispensing gasoline into a vehicle's fuel tank, a significant quantity of gas vapor is typically released into the surrounding atmosphere. For obvious reasons, it is undesirable to have gasoline vapors floating around the atmosphere. Therefore, state and federal environmental air quality regulations require that retail fuel dispensers in certain urban areas have a system for recovering the gasoline vapors. These systems typically include a small vacuum pump that pulls the vapor from around the dispenser's nozzle during fueling and pumps the vapor into a holding tank. Each system monitors the amount of fuel dispensed and collects a quantity of vapor in proportion thereto.
Additional regulations have required automobile manufactures to add a carbon canister system to new vehicles. The carbon canister system, or on-board vapor recovery (ORVR) system, collects the vapors during fueling. As a result, new vehicles will have their own vapor recovery systems and old vehicles will not; fuel dispensers located in urban areas will have their own vapor recovery systems while other fuel dispenser will not. Therefore, two different types of vapor recovery systems exist, neither system being in 100% use throughout the United States.
A problem occurs when a vehicle with an ORVR system is receiving fuel from a dispenser with a vapor recovery system. In this situation, the dispenser's vapor recovery system recovers air with very little gasoline vapor. Because this air is collected through the same nozzle, piping and underground storage tank in which gasoline vapors are normally recovered, the air can mix with the vapors from other fuelings and create an undesirable condition.
One proposed solution is to provide each dispenser with a specialized nozzle that detects the presence of the ORVR system. Additionally, a vehicle with the ORVR system is to be outfitted with a complimentary device that registers with the nozzle. When engaged, the specialized nozzle signals the dispenser's vapor recovery system to turn off. However, this solution has several drawbacks. For one, this solution is rather complicated for the customer and therefore often will not activate properly, or worse, damage the system and/or vehicle. For another, because of the mechanical nature of this solution, it requires maintenance and supervision to ensure its continuing performance.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method that reliably and accurately identifies a vehicle with an ORVR system and disables the vapor recovery system of a corresponding fuel dispenser accordingly. Furthermore, the system must be operated in an environment having multiple dispensers within close proximity to each other.